Shakespeare'S Birthplace

Shakespeare’s Birthplace is a town house, dating to the late 15th century and late 16th century, and significantly restored in 1858 based on a 1769 drawing. The building is timber-framed with plaster infill, a rubble plinth, and a tile roof with rubble stacks. It has a 4-unit plan. The façade on the right-hand side is largely 19th century, replacing brickwork from the early 1800s. There are three entrances with wide-boarded doors; a pair at the left-hand end have a pentice extending over the flanking windows and a central gablet, with an entrance to the right-hand end unit. The windows are mostly 19th-century wood-mullioned projecting windows. The ground floor features a 1:3:1-light bay window, and additional 4-light windows. The first floor has two 4-light windows, a 3-light window at the left end, and a 1:3:1-light oriel with a hipped roof and moulded base to the right end. The attic has two gabled dormers with 4-light windows, and a gable at the right end with a 3-light window. All windows have leaded glazing, and one first-floor window has a plastic protective screen. A small panel of exposed wattle is located to the left of centre. There are end stacks and a stack to the rear wing. The rear has a gabled wing with similar detailing. Inside, there are stop-chamfered beams, original timber framing, and signs of a through-passage in the right-hand end bay. Back-to-back fireplaces feature stop-chamfered Tudor-arched bressumers. A fireplace with a bressumer and timber-framed smoke hood—with a winding stair to the side—originally served the left-hand end, which was originally a separate unit. A 20th-century stair is located to the right of centre. The first floor exhibits exposed roof trusses and wind braces to the right end. The birth room, to the left of centre, has a ceiling and window inscribed with the names of visitors, including Sir Walter Scott, though these signatures are now covered in whitewash. The rear wing contains a kitchen with a large fireplace and a battened door, and the first floor has a tie-beam and collar truss with a tie cut for a round-headed doorway. William Shakespeare was born here on April 23, 1564. His father, John, lived here from approximately 1551 to 1601, and the right-hand end unit was likely his wool shop. The house passed to the Hart family, descended from Shakespeare's sister, until 1794, and became a tourist attraction from the 1740s or earlier. It was purchased by the Shakespeare Birthplace Committee in 1847 for preservation as a national monument and is now a museum cared for by the Birthplace Trust.